Boat Captain Sentenced to 4 Years Over Calif. Fire That Killed 34: 'Cowardice and Repeated Failures'

Jerry Boylan was found guilty of "seaman's manslaughter" for the November 2019 incident near Santa Cruz Island

• The captain of the Conception scuba boat was sentenced to four years on Thursday, May 2

• The accident claimed the lives of 34 people when the boat caught fire and sank near Santa Cruz Island, Calif. in the early hours of Labor Day in 2019.

• In a release, United States Attorney Martin Estrada said “The defendant’s cowardice and repeated failures caused the horrific deaths."

The captain of a scuba dive boat that caught fire and sank off the Californian coast in 2019 and killed 34 people has been sentenced.

Jerry Boylan, of Santa Barbara, was sentenced by a federal judge in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 2, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

Per NBC News Boylan was sentenced to four years in prison and three years supervised release for criminal negligence over the incident, which occurred when the scuba boat the Conception sank in the early hours of Labor Day in 2019.

A restitution hearing has been scheduled for July 11, per the release.

“The defendant’s cowardice and repeated failures caused the horrific deaths of 34 people,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada, per the U.S. Attorney's release. “The victims’ families will be forever devastated by this needless tragedy. While today’s sentence cannot fully heal their wounds, we hope that our efforts to hold this defendant criminally accountable brings some measure of healing to the families.”

“The fate of the victims on the Conception might have been different were it not for the negligence of the defendant,” added Mehtab Syed, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “I want to commend the collaborative effort by investigators and prosecutors that led to today’s sentence and hope that it delivers a measure of justice to the victims’ families as they continue to heal from this tragedy.”

The 70-year-old was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officers — an offense known as “seaman’s manslaughter” — in November 2023, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

Per the release, the jury found Boylan “committed a series of failures” in his role as captain of the Conception, including abandoning his ship instead of rescuing passengers. The jury also agreed with prosecutors that Boylan failed to perform any lifesaving or firefighting activities or use the boat’s public address system to warn passengers and crew members about the fire.

The 34 people who died — 33 passengers and one crew member — were sleeping below deck of the Santa Barbara-based dive boat and were trapped and killed. Five crew members, including Boylan, survived after jumping overboard and seeking refuge on a nearby boat called the Grape Escape.

The boat burned and sank near Santa Cruz Island.

According to the Associated Press, during Boylan’s hearing, family members of the deceased asked U.S. District Judge George Wu to give Boylan the maximum 10-year sentence.

“He’s not a victim. He is responsible for my daughter not being here,” Yadira Alvarez, the mother of 16-year-old Berenice Felipe, said. “Can you imagine my pain?” Felipe was the youngest of those killed in the incident, according to the outlet.

The outlet also reported that Robert Kurtz — the father of Alexandra Kurtz, the sole crew member who died — brought a small container to the lectern and told Boylan and the court, “This is all I have of my daughter.”

“There’s no justice,” Kurtz added, per the Los Angeles Times. “He’s not even being remanded. He’s still free.”

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During the hearing, Boylan’s attorney read a statement on his behalf saying he has cried every day since the incident, according to NBC News.

“I wish I could have brought everyone home safe,” the statement read in part. “I am so sorry.”

Wu said he took Boylan’s age, health, the unlikelihood of recurrence and the need for deterrence and punishment into account when determining his sentence.

“This is not a situation where the defendant intended to do something bad,” Wu said.

Boylan’s appeal is ongoing, according to the outlet.

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